A few things learned the hard way from managing through crises bigger and smaller:
- Blame isn’t helpful and steals energy from finding solutions. Focus on fixing the problem.
- Swiftly gather advice from others about possible solutions. You must choose in the end, but do what you can to quickly collect options and ideas.
- Be direct, tell people what to do. Step down into the weeds. “Micro-management” is not a bad thing here. You can delegate work but don’t abdicate the power of specific direction.
- Overcommunicate. Minimize the opportunity for people to fill out information gaps with their (usually incorrect) speculation. And listen.
- Thank everyone who helped navigate the crisis.
- Accept responsibility for how these events affected people, even if it was never “your fault.” Do what you can to go above and beyond to repair relationships and rebuild trust.
- Debrief and objectively review after an appropriate time for people to rest. Get multiple perspectives, however uncomfortable. Capture lessons learned. Identify ways to prevent this specific problem from occurring again.
